Tag Archives: Lee Westwood

Westwood Desperate For Automatic Ryder Cup Spot

Next months US Open is going to an important tournament for Lee Westwood as he aims to get an automatic place in the Ryder Cup team to face the USA in September.

The big Englishman from Worksop is currently 14th in the points list and know that a really good week at Pinehurst could see him guarantee a place in the side for the showdown at Gleneagles.

You would like to think that even if he didn’t make the side automatically, he would get a captain’s pick from Paul McGinley as Westwood’s experience and record in the Ryder Cup is one of the best ever.

Westwood will fancy his chances in the second major of the year after his seventh place finish at Augusta back in April, and since leaving his coach Sean Foley, he seems to have a better grasp on his swing and feels more comfortable with what he’s trying to do.

The US Open starts two weeks tomorrow and will be live on Sky Sports. Make sure you tune in. I think we could see another European winner! 

Mickelson a Worthy Winner Of The Best Tournament In The World

Well we have a new Open champion in Phil Mickelson, and what a worthy winner he was too! Having hung around in the mix all week, he somehow managed to muster up a final round 66 to win by three shots and in his own words was ‘The round of my life’.

It was all looking very tight at the top of the leaderboard with about two hours of play left, Woods never really got the putter going, Westwood looked calm but just made too many mistakes to win a tournament of this magnitude, and Adam Scott made a move and then faded away.

There was a charge from Ian Pouter in the middle of his round which saw him get to one off the lead with others still out on the course, but he couldn’t sustain it and was clubhouse leader for a while at one over par.

But Mickelson made a late charge birdieing four out of the last six holes including a tremendous three on the last to comfortably seal victory to the delight of his waiting family and coach Butch Harmon.

Although I would have loved to see an Englishman win The Open, I think Mickelson has been a great ambassador for the game of golf, and he seems like a really great guy too, so good luck to him, and I think he’s got a few more in him yet!

 

It’s Thursday, Which Only Means One Thing – More Golf!

It’s Thursday, which normally means it’s the start of the golfing week on tour in Europe and America. The two tournaments happening this week are the Travelers Championship in the USA and the BMW International Open in Germany.

A lot of players who played in the US Open are playing in one of these two tournaments, accept Tiger Woods who was advised to pull out after injuring his elbow in Merion’s deep rough last week.

As I write this Ernie Els is leading the BMW with an impressive round of nine under par and Hunter Mahan is leading the Travelers Championship at six under par through twelve holes, but England’s Lee Westwood has also started well and is two under par through twelve.

Let’s hope we’re treated to another great week of golf and another exciting finish!

Come back tomorrow where I will be talking about The Open which isn’t far away now!

Rose Win To Boost English Players Performance At Majors

It’s been a 43 year wait but finally England can be proud once again and finally be able to celebrate a US Open win by the great Justin Rose.

In a week that saw many different players top the leaderboard at some point we all knew that the winning score was going to be around the level par mark and that it would be a player who showed the most patience and accepted that sometimes a bogey was a good score on hole if they were going to win.

English players have been knocking on the door for some time now since Nick Faldo was the last Englishman to win a major at the 1996 Masters when he overcame a seven shot deficit to beat Greg Norman in the final round.

We’ve had Colin Montgomerie fall at the last hurdle on a couple of occasions, we’ve seen Luke Donald, Paul Casey and Lee Westwood come so close but not quite able to finish the job off, but hopefully now Rose has won a major it will inspire others to do so and make them believe that they can.

It wasn’t long ago when Padraig Harrington won his first major and a second shortly followed which then we saw the likes of Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy do the same.

Lets just hope that this is start of something big for English golf.

My Betting Tips For The Masters

Well as promised I’m going to tell you who I think can win the US Masters this year. It’s getting tougher than ever to predict winners of tournaments now, as so many players are capable of winning major tournaments.

I’ve gone for three players who I think can win:

Phil Mickelson

Lee Westwood

Louis Oosthuizen 

To see their odds take a look here

If you’re having a bet yourself then GOOD LUCK!

 

Westwood Eyeing Up First Win At The Emirates Golf Club

Lee Westwood is confident of having one of his best seasons yet and is sure he can hit the ground running when he tees it up at his first tournament of the year, the Dubai Desert Classic.

The Englishman from Worksop who will be 40 this year has a great record at the Emirates Golf Club, coming second three times and a total of seven top ten’s in 19 appearances, but is still yet to claim the trophy.

Westwood feels that his move to Florida last year has given him the platform to get his game into tip top condition for the 2013 season.

He’s had time to practice his short game out in the Florida sunshine whilst the snow has been falling in the UK and it’s fair to say that his short game has been his Achilles heel in recent years and probably cost him many wins, so it will be interesting to see how much it has improved and whether he can capitalise on his great driving and iron play.

Want to hit as many fairways and greens as Westwood? Why not book a  golf lesson with me and get your game ready for the season ahead.

Tiger Woods Is On A Mission

Tiger Woods goes into tonight’s conclusion of the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open with a  six shot lead.

The weather has got the better of them this week in America where an entire day of golf got wiped due to fog, but the tournament has virtually come to end despite going to an extra day, as Tiger produced the form that he has promised to for a long time now.

If he does go on to win, it will be Woods’ eighth victory on the public course of Torrey Pines that runs along the pacific coast.

I’m sure the other players will be trying to put pressure on Tiger and hope that he slips up a couple of times which he has been prone to in recent years. But this Tiger looks different, I think he’s on a real mission this year to prove to himself and to many people that he still has what it takes to win big tournaments and even major championships.

My money is going to be on Woods getting back to the number one spot and to win a major this year. You can’t keep a player of his quality down for too long, and lets face it, his bad form is as good as a lot of players good form.

Rose Looking To Jump McIlroy

Rory McIlroy is being chased down in the battle for the Race to Dubai. Justin Rose will give everything he’s got to try and hunt down the World No.1 Rory McIlroy and take the title that the Northern Irishman already has one hand on.

Rose currently standing at  No. 5 in the world is lying second in the standings but with up to $7m up for grabs this week at the BMW Masters in Shanghai, The Englishman knows a huge week here could see him catch his Ryder Cup team-mate.

Rose will be playing alongside Westwood and McIlroy in the final group that gets started on tomorrow morning. Can Rose pull it out the bag?

 

Tiger To Captain USA In Ryder Cup?

Tiger Woods  has come out and said that being given the chance to captain America in the Ryder Cup would be a “huge honour”  for him and that he would love to have the chance to do so.

The world No.2 who has only been part of one winning Ryder Cup team out of the last seven and was part of the most recent encounter at Medinah when America got thumped in the final day singles.

Woods who was partnered with Steve Stricker, lost all three of his matches  on the Friday and Saturday and only managed a half in the singles on the Sunday when he sportingly gave Francesco Molinari a 5 foot putt to allow Europe to win the Ryder Cup having already retained it after comebacks from Poulter, Rose, Westwood, Garcia and Kaymer.

Woods has a got a very poor record in the Ryder Cup and questions have been asked whether he was really interested in the competition.

Woods said “It would be a huge honour, hopefully it doesn’t happen in the near future as I would like to play in many more Ryder Cups“.

Snedeker On High As European Players Struggle

Last night saw Brandt Snedeker win the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup as he claimed he felt like a lottery winner after his victory in Atlanta earning him a staggering £7million.

The American won by 3 shots over Justin Rose after a nerveless final round – The challenge from world No.1 Rory McIlroy’s and world no.2 Tiger Woods never materialised after both got off to poor starts and could never recover.

Snedeker carded 68 in his final 18 holes to finish on 10-under par.

“It’s a little bit crazy,” said Snedeker.

Luke Donald shot a three under par final round to finish third and get himself into the top 10 of the overall FedEx standings.

Lee Westwood had another bad at the office and finished last in the thirty man field, hopefully he can find form going into Friday morning in The Ryder Cup.

The signs weren’t encouraging for the European players, let’s hope that the had their mind on Medinah already otherwise we could be in trouble!